We spend so much time with our devices that it’s possible to start feeling like unpaid software testers. iOS powers Apple’s iPhone and iPad, and I feel like I’ve been “testing” it for about five years now.

Don’t get me wrong — I love my Apple devices as much as the next beard-growing hipster on a fixie, but some of these issues have been around for a long time now.

Today I’ll be sharing my personal iOS bugbears, I’d love to hear yours too so stick around and leave a comment at the end.

Fortunately by heading to Settings > Wi-Fi, you can check the box that says Ask To Join Networks, which prevents your phone from putting you at risk. You can go ahead and do it now if you haven’t already (your phone will still automatically join any networks you authorize).

The only problem with this rather excellent safeguard? My phone continually asks me if I want to join wireless networks. Like, all the time. It’s infuriating. The only times I want to search for wireless networks are when I actively need them, not when I’m walking around the city with a considerably faster 4G connection.

The biggest problem with Apple not allowing users to pick their default camera app is that you can’t quickly launch your app of choice from the lockscreen. Photography is fleeting in nature, so fast-access to your camera gives you a better chance at getting the shot you want.

Despite Apple wanting us all to use their own browser and email client, that doesn’t change the fact a huge number of users use alternative apps for these tasks. I’m a huge fan of smartphone photography, and judging by their recent “Shot on iPhone 6” advertising campaign, Apple is too — so let us change our default cameras already!

Realize Spotlight’s Usefulness

Spotlight is a killer OS X feature and has been the envy of Windows users for years. iOS also has a built in Spotlight search, accessible by swiping down on the home screen. You should already be using this to launch your apps, it’s considerably faster than trawling through folders and studying icons.

However, Spotlight’s implementation with iOS feels like a missed opportunity. Despite massive improvements in iOS 8What's New In iOS 8?What's New In iOS 8?After last year's big iOS 7 redesign, you'd expect a muted iOS 8 announcement at this year's Worldwide Developer Conference – but you'd be wrong.Read More, the search feature still isn’t anywhere near as intelligent as its Mac cousin. On my desktop, I can convert currencies and units of measurement, look up movie times, and even search for Evernote notes and other third-party content.

Similarly, searching Messages for keywords is a jumbled mess, with no option of progressing to the next or previous search result. Try searching for a commonly used word, and you’ll see what I mean.

Fix AirDrop

AirDrop is Apple’s proprietary wireless file transfer protocol that uses both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to transfer files between iOS 8 devices and Mac computers running Yosemite. Since its introduction in iOS 8, the technology has been flaky.

Similarly, despite keeping a fairly thorough contacts list, the “Contacts Only” AirDrop function has literally never worked for me, even when that contact was myself (yes, Apple places a personal contact card in your phone book).

Bluetooth file transfer used to work fairly competently on the dumbphones of yore — AirDrop not so much.

More Devices = More iCloud Storage

iPhone owners — did you know Samsung Galaxy owners get 50GB of free Dropbox storage? The offer also applies to certain HTC devices, and is valid for two years. While it’s only a temporary solution, it puts Apple’s pitiful 5GB of free iCloud storage to shame.

If you have spent a lot of money on a MacBook Pro, iPad, and iPhone, it’s laughable that Apple expects you to micromanage available cloud storage in order to make everything fit. 5GB of storage is less than useless for backing up devices — but your phone will bug you incessantly about not having enough iCloud storage until you cough up for more space.

I’ve got a better idea: for every new iOS device purchased, Apple adds 5GB of storage to your iCloud pool. I’d still find it difficult to keep everything backed up with only 15GB of space, but at this stage, it seems like the least Cupertino could do considering how cheap and readily available cloud storage has become.

This is more relevant than ever since the arrival of the iCloud Photo Library, with iCloud becoming more deeply entrenched within our devices and the Apple ecosystem as a whole.

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Govertz

May 1, 2015 at 6:26 am

Thanks guys, this is music in my ears. I don't have the budget to buy Apple devices.
I'm not feeling envy anymore, because now I know what people are doing, when they are burried in their I-devices, they are troubleshooting. :)

I believe that there is a "typo" in the 5th paragraph:
"Fortunately by heading to Settings > Wi-Fi, you can check the box that says Ask To Join Networks, which prevents your phone from putting you at risk."

S/B:
"Fortunately by heading to Settings > Wi-Fi, you can UNcheck the box that says Ask To Join Networks, which prevents your phone from putting you at risk."

I am a project manager who works with developers. We live by one creed "done is better than perfect". If they wait for everything to be perfect it would never be released. I agree that there should be some improvements but stop whining. They release new features every year. You sound like my customers...and Babatunde sounds exactly like one of my customers.

My biggest problems with iOS is with devices that use it, the iPhone and iPad.

Android devices almost always have a slot to add additional storage via a microSD card - a very handy feature to have when you are running out of space. Apple is arrogant in the extreme by not having this on iOS devices.

And how about making a device that allows a user to swap a depleted battery for a fully charged one. Or to swap a dead battery for a brand new one.

These are just things you are never going to see from Apple, the same way Porsche aren't going to put towbars on the next 911.

I did once read a very good article (that I can't find now) about why iOS devices forego the SD card slot. It basically came down to hassle and user experience. People buy Apple devices because they generally do what you want them to with little in the way of friction. Buy tablet, download app, job done. For the majority, this is enough.

Introducing split system storage and explaining to Joe Average that he needs to move apps from one drive to the other, or that he can't download a system update as it relies on internal storage (which is full) is something Apple doesn't want to have to deal with.

It's also another method of exploitation — jailbreaking and the like. And of course they can also charge more, adding a $100 bump for each increased level of capacity.

I wouldn't describe these as problems but design decisions that don't fit your requirements. Fortunately there's lots of Android and Windows devices that fit the bill, though I'd say the standard of software, stability and user experience isn't quite on the same level.

Tim I have a 4S and the size is perfect for my hands and for my pockets!
If I want an iPad I will rather buy that than wasting my money on an iPhone 6 or iPad Nano if you know what I mean?
And no! I don't want swift keys either!
Just the good ol alphanumeric keyboard! give me that option and nothing else just that!

Default keyboard needs to change case with the state of the shift key. This is so fundamentally insulting to me that it trumps all other issues.

File system access. Users should be able to segregate and reorganize data.

Data sharing needs to work like it does on Android. The state of affairs on iOS relies on certain well known apps (dropbox) as intermediaries because many apps won't or can't share data directly.

There needs to be a work flow for making music files available to the device without use of iTunes. Users can't even download an mp3 with Safari with tools given them on iOS, but if they do manage to do it with an app, those files are separated from the ones available to the default music player.

Honestly, I could keep going. I flatly hate iOS. I believe that it's hostile to users and I wish it would just stop existing. Android has flaws as well, but at least it has a default keyboard that treks me when I'm typing in lowercase.

It's all subjective really, but I thought I'd comment on your music point. iOS does in fact allow users to grab MP3s — from either iCloud Drive, Google Drive etc or Safari in a webpage — but you need an app that can do something with them. The problem is that your iOS device won't add that MP3 to the Music *library* without going through iTunes first.

Now this could be for good reason (to stop libraries being corrupted/out of sync etc they all go through iTunes) but it's also a method of control. The inability to add music files to the library makes them unavailable to apps that use what iOS labels "music" (e.g. djay, RunKeeper).

Basically it's probably not going to change, partly for technical reasons and almost certainly for financial/controlling reasons.

Oh and I'm pretty sure you can get keyboards now that have their own autocorrect and let you type in lowercase, but I haven't had the need to look!

iOS's handling of music data is simply wrong. I don't care what excuse you or Apple care to give, having to choose between jailbreaking a device and having to connect a device to a personal computer and use one particular application to move files between sandboxes is at best a misfeature, especially now that tablet devices are mainstream enough that some users simply won't own a personal computer.

I suppose that I could go farther and say that, for a device that wants end users to know as little about files and directory structures as is humanly possible, it's entirely counter-intuitive to suggest that a user become aware of the sandbox data model, the need to associate a file with a specific app and how to move data out of one app and into another using itunes in the first place. Those things require several enormous leaps in logic that I would not expect an iOS device user to make on their own.

Speaking to the keyboard: No one I've encountered has ever attempted to defend Apple's choice. I'm glad that people who have iOS inflicted on them now have options to use something different, but the vast majority of Apple device users will never try anything different. The keyboard is the first thing Apple needs to fix with iOS.

Apple has essentially "disabled" the file system by sandboxing everything. One app cannot access another app's data (for privacy and security), so there's no real "need" for a file system. Every app has its own private storage area, but at least you can now share data between apps with iOS 8.

Ergo, despite agreeing with you up until a year or so ago, I don't think this will really make iOS that much better. I just don't think it fits anywhere near the company's vision for a slimmed-down OS X.

Swanny I have really tried my best and used all the jedi tricks I can think of… she won't recognize my gestures or accept my English or Danish spoken commands leaving me with an experience similar to this… >:-@https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2npEwpclJoo

Wifi.... if you are not using it TURN IT OFF, your battery will last longer. You can turn it off from the lock screen....
I would like to be able to turn cellular data off from the lock screen.
I would also like a home screen link from settings.

No thanks, I'm not a fan of babysitting my smartphone. It should know that I don't want to connect to random networks until I actually need them. If I turned off wi-fi I'd forget to turn it back on and burn through mobile data like crazy.

Personally I'm not too bothered about this one. I think the fact that Apple opened up apps being able to talk to each other is a step in the right direction. I dont need to open Evernote when I can save things right to it from the Share sheet, for example.